Glutamine or BCAA, Which is the Better Fatique Buffer? 18g GLU Suprisingly Effective, 9.5g BCAAs (Un-)Surprisingly Useless as Blood Fatigue Factors & Cytokine Buffers

Rowing is an excellent cardio exercise for wanna be bodyuilders, by the way!

I am not really a fan of glutamine, but unlike BCAAs that are still hyped all over the Internet, the conditionally essential amino acid which is the most abundant of all amino acids in human blood is at least not falsely heralded as a potent catabolic, anabolic, weight loss adjuvant and what not, any longer.

Against that background I have to admit that I am not exactly unhappy to tell you that Ga Hee Koo, Jin Hee Woo, Sung Whun Kang, and Ki Ok Sjin who work at the Dong-A University and the Republic of Korea Airforce Academy, have recently observed that BCAAs have absolutely no, glutamine at least a minimal impact on the blood fatigue factor response of juvenile athletes in response to a 2,000 m all out rowing challenge w/ placebo, BCAA or glutamine supps.

Learn more about glutamine and BCAAs at the SuppVersity

Glutamine Helps W/ Diabetes

Whey + Casein Beat GLU + BCAA

Alanyl-Glutamine is it any good?

GLU for Glycogen Repletion?

GLU as Intra-Workout BV?

BCAAs deplete neurotransmitters

In the corresponding experiment, the scientists from the College of Sports Science at the Dong-A University had five male juvenile elite rowing athletes perform the same 2,000m rowing test at maximal intensity after having received a placebo, BCAA, or glutamine for 7 days before
the test. The specific supplementation regimen included:

• BCAA (Spomax, Seoul, Republic of Korea) was given three times a day (25% valine, 50% leucine, 25% isoleucine, 3.15 g/day).
• L-glutamine (Optimum Nutrition, Aurora, IL, USA, 6 g/day) was given three times a day.

Blood samples were collected from the antecubital vein on the day of testing while resting before the test, immediately at the end of test, and 30 min after the test. All tests were conducted with a 1-week interval to eliminate the potential effects from potentially longer-lasting effects of the previously administered supplement.

Which parameters did the researchers test and why? Koo et al. tested lactate, the accumulation of which will eventually impair ATP synthesis and lead to muscular fatigue. They tested the accumulation and clearance of ammonia, which can trigger central fatigue, when the levels increase rapidly during high intensity exercise. And they tested creatine kinase (CK) which is a classic marker of muscle damage and IL-8 and IL-15, two cytokines that will be elevated, when the activity of the immune system is not sufficient to deal with exercise induced stressors.

The actual test was conducted with an indoor rowing machine (Concept², Morrisville, VT, USA) two times each for supplementation with the placebo, BCAA, and glutamine. All the subjects performed a 2,000 m (Olympic single scull race) race at their own individual maximum paces (42–45 pace for 0m~250m, 40 pace for 250m~500m, 36–38 pace for 500m~1,500 m, and over 42 pace for 1,500 m~2,000 m)

Figure 1: Serum markers of fatigue and muscle damage, expressed relative to placebo (Koo. 2014)

There were no significant differences in lactate levels; a significant phopshorus-sparing effect from BCAAs (small effect size) and glutamine (large effect size) of which the scientists believe that it was mediated by the use of the amino acids to maintain adequate muscular ATP levels; and there was a non-significantly elevated level of ammonia in the glutamine group (some arginine could help clear those | learn more) that returned to normal 30 min after the test.

The dosages are not the same! That's unfair! No, it's not necessarily unfair, but it would still have been better to test 18g of glutamine vs. 18g of BCAAs. There is after all one thing both have in common: They both can be used as workout fuel in the muscle, so the advantage of glutamine may have become smaller (maybe even non-significant), if both had been administered at the same amounts.

The creatine kinase levels (a marker of muscle damage) and the levels of interleukin-8 and interleukin-15, however, were significantly lower in the glutamine than they were in either the BCAA or placebo group. This is a result of which the authors of the study believe that, it may...

"[...]represent the effects of energy supplementation from glutamine supply, which activated as a fuel in the muscle and as a nitrogen precursor for nucleotide synthesis" (Koo. 2014). 

An alternative explanation would be that glutamine (probably via its connection to glutathione; see Roth. 2002) had a direct protive effect on the skeletal muscle tissue during the workouts.

Figure 2: Serum levels of inflammatory cytokines expressed relative to placebo (Koo. 2014)

This hypothesis would also be supported by the changes in interleukin expression. i.e. the blunted increase of interleukin-8. IL-8 is an inflammatory cytokine that serves as a chemical signal which attracts neutrophils at the site of inflammation. The corresponding increase in IL-15, which was likewise reduced in response to sub-chronic glutamine supplementation, on the other hand, indicates a reduced production (not activity!) of natural killer cells.

Table 1: Intense exercise is not the only condition / disease that's associated  with low blood glutamine levels (Roth. 2002)

In that, it is crucial to understand that the authors (imho reasonably) believe that the increase in IL-8 & IL-15 is a compensatory mechanism which is initiated to counter the reduced immune function that occurs, when the amount of glutamine in the blood and skeletal tissue drops. We do after all know for sure that the this will result in a significant decrease in the cell proliferation rate of lymphocytes, the amount of antioxidants, peptides, amino sugars related to cell resistance against apoptotic processes, purines, as well as the synthesis of key molecules such as pyrimidines which are all involved in redox reactions (Roth. 2002).

Whether supplementation is warranted with low(er) intensity exercise, as well, is however questionable. Previous research by Ostrowski et al. (2001), who had their subjects exercise at significantly lower intensities, did not find comparable increases in IL-8. This difference is probably due to a comparably lower amount of exercise induced stress that corresponds to the reduced intensity. In this context it's also worth mentioning that Fischer et al. (2006) report that the blood chemokine concentrations would increase little or remain stagnant unless a sufficient muscle mass is mobilized and maintained at a certain level of intensity sufficiently... now, everyone who has ever done an all-out rowing time trial will confirm: This is (a) intense and will (b) involve almost every muscle in your body.

If maximal muscle hypertrophy, not performance increases in all-out (aerobic) exercise and protecting your immune function is your goal, buy some whey + casein and stay away from glutamine & BCAAs unless you insist on wasting money on hitherto unproven promises of strength & size gains | learn more

Bottom line: In contrast to BCAAs which will "only" blunt the increase in debilitating phosphorus in the blood,  "glutamine supplementation could be helpful for enhancement of immune function and the defensive inflammatory reaction after exercise." (Koo. 2014)

The results of the study at hand do thus confirm an older piece of broscience, i.e. the importance and efficiency of adequate amounts of glutamine (15g or more per day!) for recovery and immune function. They do yet also put another question mark behind the ergogenic potential of brach-chained amino acids about which I have written repeatedly in previous articles here at the SuppVersity (in other contexts, BCAAs may well be superior to glutamine, but long-term studies to prove any of the claimed benefits are missing, as well).

Whether the results from the study at hand warrant the consumption of 18g of glutamine per day for all of us, is still questionable. If you are in a phase of your training that requires a lot of all-out exercise and already feel that your immune defenses are dwindling, it probably won't hurt to buy a cheap 500g bag of glutamine from the bulk supplier you trust. Don't expect instant results of illusive tingles as you'll get them with certain other supplements. If there are benefits they will only be visible over time and will include faster / more complete recovery, reduced rates of infection and overall fatigue. Eventually, these would help you to make faster gains in strength and size, though | Comment on Facebook.

References:

• Fischer, Christian P. "Interleukin-6 in acute exercise and training: what is the biological relevance." Exerc Immunol Rev 12.6-33 (2006): 41.
• Koo, Ga Hee, et al. "Effects of Supplementation with BCAA and L-glutamine on Blood Fatigue Factors and Cytokines in Juvenile Athletes Submitted to Maximal Intensity Rowing Performance." Journal of Physical Therapy Science 26.8 (2014): 1241-1246.
• Ostrowski, Kenneth, et al. "Chemokines are elevated in plasma after strenuous exercise in humans." European journal of applied physiology 84.3 (2001): 244-245.
• Roth, Erich, et al. "Regulative potential of glutamine—relation to glutathione metabolism." Nutrition 18.3 (2002): 217-221.

Colostrum Maintains Testosterone, Cortisol and Heart Rate Recovery, Where Whey Fails - During a Five Day Cycling Event With 10 Highly Trained Male Road Cyclists

Legal gear fresh from the udder? If it works for cyclist, it must be real ;-)

Some of you will probably remember the corresponding installment of "Ask Dr. Andro" from 2011 that dealt with the question whether colostrum and milk products in general are healthy muscle builders, a waste of money or toxic waste (read more). If you do, you will also remember that my review of the literature did support the general benefits of milk proteins, but it did not provide significant evidence that benefits that have been observed in the few existing studies on the ergogenic value of colostrum could not be achieved by whey and/or casein proteins as well. Now, the latest study from the University of Queensland appears to suggest that just this could yet in fact be the case (Shing. 2013) - at least if the outcome measures are the salivary testosterone concentration and modulated autonomic activity over consecutive days of competitive cycling.

10g of whey vs. 10g of cholostrum "isolate"

The scientists from the School of Human Movement Studies recruited 10 highly trained cyclists with an average age of 22.5y and a body weight of ~70kg and put them on two different supplemental protocols

• the control group received consumed 10g whey protein concentrate (“Alacen® 80” Fonterra Co-op Group Limited, Auck- land, New Zealand) per day 
• the colostrum group consumed 10 g Intact® bovine CPC (Numico Research Australia Pty Ltd, South Australia) per day

Neeldess to say, both supplements were isocaloric, packed in identical sachets to and had to be used for the same timespan, which were the 8 weeks prior to and the whole five days of the cycle race that was used as the litmus test for the efficacy of the supplementation regimen.

Colostrum muscle builder or murky allergen (learn more)?

In that it, may be worth adding that the cyclists consumed the in the morning mixed with 50 mL of water and 100 mL of skim milk and that the scientists picked Intact® CPC 3-6, 14 as their colostrum supplement of choice, because the various available products vary largely in their amino acid and protein content. Therefore it appeared sensible to use the same brands that have been used in previous studies, as well. According to Shing et al. Intact® is a standardized, low heat  treated, low fat, low lactose colostrum powder containing 20%  IgG that retains both casein and whey proteins (just as a side note: there was no sponsorship involved in the study, although the brand names may suggests otherwise).

Aside from the objectively measurable saliva responses, the scientists had the participants fill diet and training, as well as illness logs. The latter reflects the hypothesis that the IgG content in the colostrum would strengthen the immune system of the cyclists and should thus result in lowered infection rates. With two vs. four illnesses in the whole study period the differences between the colostrum (2 illnesses) and the whey group were yet statistically not significant.

Figure 1: Change in heart rate recovery (left), salivary testosterone and cortisol levels (right) during the 5-day cycling event (Shing. 2013)

Much contrary to whey group, where the naturally cyclic testosterone rhythm is completely lost and the cortisol rhythm attenuated, both remained intact in the colostrum group. This goes hand in hand with the loss of heart rate variability in the whey control and the increases of the parameter in the colostrum group. Both results in conjunction with the smaller reduction in vigor and the ameliorated change in fatigue in the colostrum group clearly suggest that the cyclists in the whey group were already parasympathetically overtrained, while the stress reducing effects colostrum kept the cyclists in the active arm from falling into the same trap.

---

For short time-trials sodium bicarbonate may be the supp of choice (learn more).

Bottom line: The scientists state it in their conclusion "the number of participants in this pilot study was small", too small for my liking, so that it is - as a standalone - simply not enough to prove anything.

The scientists are yet right that "the present data support the potential for bovine CPC supplementation to maintain testosterone concentrations and influence heart rate variability response" in a training regimen that is notorious for its negative impact on the central nervous system and the HPTA. "Support" and "potential" - not more, but not less either.

References:

• Shing CM, Peake JM, Suzuki K, Jenkins DG, Coombes JS. A pilot study: bovine colostrum supplementation and hormonal and autonomic responses to competitive cycling. J Sports Med Phys Fitness. 2013 Oct;53(5):490-501.

Catching One Cold After the Other? 10,000 IU Vitamin D per Week + Gargling May Help. Plus: Gargling Thrice A Day or Gargling With Green Tea Are Even More Effective!

Gargling and vitamin D (10,000 IU/week) keep you infection free.

Not too long ago, everyone would have thought you'd picked the wrong letter from the vitamin alphabet if you told him to use "vitamin D" supplements to ward off upper respiratory infections. For decades this has been the still unconfirmed prerogative of vitamin C, which appears to work only in men & women with chronically low intakes of vitamin C...  These days, however, vitamin D can - supposedly - do everything and Mr. and Mrs. Joe & Jane Average won't be surprised to hear that Emma C Goodall and colleagues from the McMaster University and other research institutions call vitamin D, or to be more precise the provision of vitamin D3 supplements a promising intervention for the prevention of URTI. 

You can learn more about vitamin D at the SuppVersity

How Much To Take?

Leucine, Insulin & Vitamin D

Vit. D Speeds Up Recovery

Overlooked D-Sources

Vitamin D For Athletes!

Vitamin D Helps Store Fat

To test their hypothesis that the combination of gargling in D-supplementation would ward off the common and not so common cold(s), the scientists randomized 600 students into 4 treatment arms:

• vitamin  D and  no  gargling,  and  
• placebo  and  no  gargling.  

• vitamin D3 and gargling, 
• placebo and  gargling,  

The students completed weekly electronic surveys and submitted self-collected mid-turbinate nasal flockedswabs during September and October in 2010 or 2011. Symptomatic students also completed
an electronic symptom diary, which was intended to test for possible effects of vitamin D on the severity and length of the upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs). The primary and secondary outcomes were the occurrence of symptomatic clinical URTI and laboratory confirmed URTI respectively.

Figure 1: Effect of gargling and vitamin D supplementation on URTI occurance (laboratory confirmed), viral load, symptom duration and symptom severity (Goodall. 2014)

As you'd expect, not all students completed the study - of 600 participants, only 471 (78.5%) completed all survey. 43 (7.2%) even registered without completed a single of the questionnaires. Of those students who did responde, 150 (25.0%) reported clinical upper respiratory tract infections (laboratory testing identified 70 infections; 46.7 per 100 URTIs).

And what about the gargling? It's surprising but even plain tap water helps reduce the incidence of upper-respiratory tract infections (-18%)... non-signifcantly, but it helps ;-) If you want to achieve significance and up the effectiveness from -18% to -46%, you would just have to do HIIT gargling, i.e. gargle the water for about 15 seconds three times consecutively, and do this at least three times a day - at least for the subjects in a 2005 study from the Kyoto University School of Public Health that worked like a charm (Satomura. 2005). And if you aim to minimize it by reducing your risk by ~90%, you can simply add some tea catechins (200 µg/mL catechins, 60% of catechins comprise epigallocatechin gallate) to your gargling water (Yamada. 2006).

If we look at the effects of vitamin D in isolation, we will see that seventy of those 150 participants had been randomized to the the vitamin D3 groups. The other 80 subjects, were in one of the "no-suppplementation" groups. Based on this data the scientists calculated a "significantly lower risk for laboratory confirmed URTI (RR: 0.54, CI95 :0.34-0.84, p = 0.007)" and "a significantly lower mean viral load  measured  as  log10 viral  copies  /  mL" for the vitamin D3 supplemented study participants.

Interestingly, these results stand in contrast to previous studies, where a different dosing scheme, i.e. 100,000IU/month of vitmamin D3 supplements, did not yield a significant reduction in URTI incidence among the 322 healthy adults who participated in a 2012 study by Murdoch et al. that was conducted between February 2010 and November 2011 in Christchurch, New Zealand and analyzed both the D-intake and the changes in 25-OHD levels (Murdoch. 2012).

SuppVersity Suggested Read: "Based on the Latest Evidence, Who Would Benefit From Even more Vitamin D? Plus: How Much Vitamin D Do I Need To Achieve Optimal Levels & Keep Them Steady? " | read more

Bottom Line: It's not unlikely that the dosing protocol, i.e. 100,000IU 1x per months vs. 10,000IU / week everyday made all the difference, here, but without a study to test the two directly against each other, we can only speculate if this or any other confounding factor made the difference (e.g. baseline 25OHD levels, etc.). If we look at other studies, e.g. 300IU/day in Mongolian children (Camargo. 2012) and 400IU/day in Finnish young men (Laaksi. 2010), it would yet not seem impossible - in spite of the fact that the latest reviews say confirm that "[r]esults from randomised controlled trials were conflicting however" (Jollife. 2013) and that currently available scientific evidence "do[es] not support the routine use of vitamin D supplementation for RTI prevention in healthy populations" (Mao. 2013).

That being said, I recently recommend taking ~1,000IU/day of vitamin D3 as a maintenance dose to keep your vitamin D levels in the normal range, year-round anyway. If you do that you would automatically get enough vitamin D to see the anti-upper-respiratory-tract effects - if there are any.

Reference:

• Goodall, Emma C., et al. "Vitamin D3 and gargling for the prevention of upper respiratory tract infections: a randomized controlled trial." BMC Infectious Diseases 14.1 (2014): 273.
• Jolliffe, David A., Christopher J. Griffiths, and Adrian R. Martineau. "Vitamin D in the prevention of acute respiratory infection: systematic review of clinical studies." The Journal of steroid biochemistry and molecular biology 136 (2013): 321-329.
• Laaksi, Ilkka, et al. "Vitamin D supplementation for the prevention of acute respiratory tract infection: a randomized, double-blinded trial among young Finnish men." Journal of Infectious Diseases 202.5 (2010): 809-814. 
• Mao, Song, and Songming Huang. "Vitamin D supplementation and risk of respiratory tract infections: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials." Scandinavian journal of infectious diseases 45.9 (2013): 696-702.
• Murdoch, David R., et al. "Effect of Vitamin D3 Supplementation on Upper Respiratory Tract Infections in Healthy AdultsThe VIDARIS Randomized Controlled TrialVitamin D3 and Upper Respiratory Tract Infections." Jama 308.13 (2012): 1333-1339.
• Satomura, Kazunari, et al. "Prevention of upper respiratory tract infections by gargling: a randomized trial." American journal of preventive medicine 29.4 (2005): 302-307.

Cod Liver Oil vs. URTI. 2x Higher Fat Oxidation W/ Optimal Workout Timing, Aggressive Diabesity Control, Seaweed & Breast Cancer and NO Supplements Superior to Sugar

Self-proclaimed experts will say: "No cod liver! It's poison! It has way too much vitamin A... you better pop a kg of vitamin D pills if you want to do something for your health." Really? How do you explain the results of the Robertson study, then?

"Grandma was right" - That's if you will the statement of the week - a statement that is verified by the SuppVersity Figure of the Week which is p = 0.04 and describes the probability that the association between the consumption of cod liver oil and a decreased occurrence of upper respiratory tract infects (URTI) Swedish researchers observed in a cohort of 6350 middle-aged and elderly participants in the Tromsø Study 6, of which Robertsen et al. had actually expected that it would finally confirm the protective effects of high(er) vitamin D levels / intake against respiratory disease. As it turned out, however, neither vitamin D (25-OHD), nor the intake of fish, n-3 capsules or vitamin and/or mineral supplements were significantly associated. Shamed be he who thinks of vitamin A now ;-)

• 2-Fold Increase in Fat Oxidation W/ Correct Workout Timing (Darvakh. 2013) -- If we assume that you want to burn the maximal amount of fat during a workout, timing could be a more important factor than previously thought.

  

  Figure 1: Maximal fat oxidation, intensity necessary to achieve the maximal fatty acid oxidation and total fat oxidation per minute; all values expressed relative to absolute mean in each category (Darvakh. 2013)

  In a recent study from the Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences at the Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz in Iran the maximal rate of fatty acid oxidation in healthy, but untrained subjects was 2x higher in the afternoon compared to both the morning and evening conditions.
  
  What's likewise interesting to observe is the fact that the exercise intensity that was required to achieve maximal fatty acid oxidation was higher in the morning. No wonder that the total fatty acid oxidation per minute in all three trials was the highest, when the participants worked out in the morning!

  ---

  Bottom line: It's not just the missing dietary control, but also the mere idea that "burning fat for fuel" during a workout would have beneficial effects on long-term weight loss - let alone help you shed weight, when you are not in a caloric deficit that renders the results of the study at hand interesting, but more or less irrelevant. My personal advice would thus be: Work out, whenever you can muster the time and whenever you got the choice, base your decision on when to work out on performance measures, not results from studies like these (learn more about planning your workouts here).

• Is the time ripe for aggressive diabesity cures?! (Belsare. 2010) -- Everyone who has listened to the Wednesday episode of Super Human Radio, when Carl Lanore interviewed the Indian researcher Milind G. Watve, co-author of the paper at hand, will already be familar with the concept:
  

  

  Table 1: Molecules that affect aggressive behavior as well as insulin resistance (Belsare. 2010)

  Physical aggression is known to increase secretion of epidermal growth factor (EGF) in anticipation of injuries and EGF is important in pancreatic beta cell regeneration too. In anticipation of injuries aggression related hormones also facilitate angiogenesis and angiogenesis dysfunction is the root cause of a number of co-morbidities of insulin resistance syndrome.
  
  Reduced injury proneness typical of ‘diplomat’ life style would also reorient the immune system resulting into delayed wound healing on the one hand and increased systemic inflammation on the other. Diabetes is negatively associated with physically aggressive behaviour."

  These and the unquestionably striking associations the researchers collected in the tabular overview I used as a basis for table 1 to the right of this post (you read it a follows: arrows indicate up-/down-regulation or pos-/neg. correlation; "A"/"B" causation / reverse causation shown in A1/B1 = mutant or knockout experiment; A2/B2 = pharmacological/physiological exp. based on infusion or use of agonists/antagonists); C indicates only statistical association w/out direct evidence for causality), would unquestionably justify the hypothesis:
  

  "[...]that suppression of physical aggression is the major behavioural cue for the development of metabolic syndrome."

  However, despite the fact that "preliminary trials of behavioural intervention indicate that games and exercises involving physical aggression reduce systemic inflammation and improve glycemic control" - the same is true for "unagressive" types of exercise, so that I can't but vouch my doubts about the causative nature of aggression in this game of convenient laziness.

  ---

  

  Sugg. Podcast: Doves, Diplomats & Diabetes: A Darwinian Interpretation Of the Obesity Epidemic (listen)

  Bottom line: Irrespective of the causative or correlative nature of the lack of aggression or its presence in the etiology and resolution of the obesity epidemic.
  
  In the end, I am with Dr. Watve and his Indian colleagues: the non-pharmacological and in my humble opinion only viable solution to our problem are lifestyle changes - and as far as the "aggressiveness" is concerned, I guess, we'd just have to enforce these more aggressively. At least as aggressively as the Australians are leading their "war against" cigarette smoking - maybe a "war against" and not as a quest for revenue-generating pharmacological solutions to behavioral problems as we are still doing it by now.

• The breast cancer protective effects of seaweed - proof of principle (Teas. 2013) -- Researchers from the South Carolina Cancer Center at the University of South Carolina state in their recently published paper in the Journal of Applied Physiology that the consumption of seaweed (Undaria) in the form of a capped supplement (5g/day, total) decreases the urinary human urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR) concentrations in15 healthy postmenopausal women (5 had no history of breast cancer, 5 were breast cancer surivors) during a 3-month single-blinded placebo controlled clinical trial.

  ---

  What to make of these results? With the well-established increase in uPAR in post-menopausal and it's highly significant correlation with unfavorable breast cancer outcomes. The scientists argue that this controlled experiment would provide the hitherto missing "proof of principle" to confirm the epidemiologically observed anti-breast cancer effects of seaweed.

• Pre- & Post-workout supplementation with VPX' flagship products NO Shotgun & Synthesize promote fat free gains more than pure sugar (Ormsbee. 2013) -- Actually I did not even want to post this study, but it's so hilariously funny that I could not resist informing you about the marginal edge the provision of the VPX pre- & post-workout supplements NO Shotgun & NO Synthesize had in a sponsored study from the Florida State University that's been published in provisional form on Friday afternoon.
  
  When the researchers analyzed the effects the provision of the said supplements before and after each of the workouts the 29 healthy resistance trained men had compared to a maltodextrin [yeah, that's protein, BCAA, creatine, caffeine, beta alanine & more in the "multi-ingredient performance supplements (MIPS) vs. plain sugar as "control" placebo)] they found

  • 

    Figure 2: Body composition of previously resistance trained subjects after 6 weeks of standardized thrice weekly progressive strength training in participants ingesting one serving of NO Shotgun and Synthesize (MIPS) vs. 2x17g maltodextrin (placebo) pre / post workout; values expressed relative to group baseline (Ormsbee. 2013)

    no group time  interaction  for  HR,  BP,  blood  glucose,  lipids,  NOx,  hs-CRP,
    cortisol  concentrations  or  body  fat
  • significant decrease in body fat in both groups (mean ± SD; MIPS: -1.2 ± 1.2%; Placebo: -0.9  ± 1.1%), android fat (MIPS: -1.8 ± 2.1%; Placebo: -1.6 ± 2.0%), and gynoid fat (MIPS: -1.3 ± 1 .6%; Placebo: -1.0 ± 1.4%) and *drum rolls please* 
  • a  group × time interaction  for the increases in fat-free mass which were significantly  higher (4.2% vs. 1.9%) after the ingestion of the kitchen sink supplements compared to the 21g of pure maltodextrin
  What? Yeah, I know that VPX has had a very similar study done in the past (read up on the details, here) and obviously nobody read my comment back in the days that it's nice to spend some money to prove that your supplements works, but basically useless if the study protocol is designed in a way that ensures that your product will come as the more or, as in this case, rather less glorious winner.
  

  ---

  Bottom line: I wonder when the first supplement company dares doing a study comparing their product to a basic comination of creatine + whey and a cup of coffee before the workouts... what? Oh, you suspect that this could hamper their sales? Well, I guess you could be right.

---

That's it for this installment of "On Short Notice"!  If you still have to kill some time before you start into the weekend, I suggest you take a peek at one of the following Facebook news:

• 

  I hope you did not already forget that. The isoleucine-containing peptides in hydro-whey can also ramp up GLUT-4 expression and increase skeletal muscle glucose uptake - a true repartitioning effect (learn more)

  Endurance boosting effects of hydro whey -- Whey protein hydrolysate aka "low molecular weight whey" has superior effects on the endurance of rodents compared to regular whey isolate (read more)
• Influenza: marketing vaccine by marketing disease -- Young Harvard scientists speaks out about the hilariousness of the flu vaccine (learn more)
• Further evidence androgens program fat-cells-to-be to become bone, not fat -- "[O]ur results suggest androgens promote an osteogenic gene program at the expense of adipocyte differentiation." (read more)
• Metabolic IN-flexibility is a characteristic feature of PCOS in women -- That's corroborated by both insulin resistance and androgen excess (learn more)
  

If that's still not enough to satisfy your cravings, just "like" the SuppVersity on Facebook and keep on par with the latest news of which I am sure there will be more to come before the next full article is going to be published tomorrow.

References:

• Belsare PV, Watve MG, Ghaskadbi SS, Bhat DS, Yajnik CS, Jog M. Metabolic syndrome: aggression control mechanisms gone out of control. Med Hypotheses. 2010 Mar;74(3):578-89.
• Darvakh H, Nikbakht M, Shakerian S, Mousavian AS.  Effect of Circadian Rhythm on Peak of Maximal Fat Oxidation on Non-Athletic. Zahedan J Res Med Sci. 2013; 15 [epub ahead of print].
• Ormsbee MJ, Thomas DD, Mandler WK, Ward EG, Kinsey AW, Panton LB, Scheett TP, Hooshmand S, Simonavice E, Kim JS. The effects of pre- and post-exercise consumption of multi-ingredient performance supplements on cardiovascular health and body fat in trained men after six weeks of resistance training: a stratified, randomized, double-blind study. Nutr Metab (Lond). 2013 May 16;10(1):39.
• Robertsen S, Grimnes G, Melbye H. Association between serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration and symptoms of respiratory tract infection in a Norwegian population: the Tromsø Study. Public Health Nutr. 2013 May 9:1-7.  
• Teas J, Vena S, Cone DL, Irhimeh M. The consumption of seaweed as a protective factor in the etiology of breast cancer: proof of principle. J Appl Phycol. 2013 Jun;25(3):771-779.